A Letter to My Niece
(Image by Microsoft CoPilot)
Dear Julia,
With classes just starting for you, I’m writing to tell you how lucky you are to attend a school that has implemented a strict phone ban and how fortunate you are that your parents aren’t buying you a smartphone yet.`
By being at a school without phones, you will have more ability to focus on the people in front of you and around you. You will spend more time reading body language and facial expressions. In short, you will strengthen your social skills, which have always been important but will be even more so in a world of artificial intelligence. One thing that sets us humans apart from powerful machines is our ability to read social cues and build relationships with other people.
Then there is the maturing of the synapses in your brain. Although you are well aware that your physical body is changing during puberty, you might not be aware that your brain is going through major changes as well. One of the main brain skills that will develop over the next few years is “executive function,” which refers to your ability to make plans and then do the things necessary to execute those plans. These skills depend on the development of the frontal cortex, which is the last part of the brain to rewire during puberty. It is important to know that the presence of a smartphone can negatively impact the development of your frontal cortex.
While I argue that social skills and executive function skills are super important, academic work matters too. This is another reason why you are lucky to be at a school that bans phones, as the evidence is overwhelming that smartphones harm the educational experience. Adrian Ward, a cognitive and social psychologist who teaches at the University of Texas, authored a study showing that even when students don’t check their phones, the mere presence of a phone damages their ability to think. Meanwhile, Melissa Huey and David Giguere found that when some college students were randomly assigned to have their phones physically removed before class, their mindfulness and comprehension of the course material went up. In short, the harder the work, the more self-control is required. Constantly vibrating phones ruin your ability to focus.
School is important. Social skills are important. It’s also important that you get as much sleep as possible during the next few years. This is another reason why you are lucky to not have an iPhone. As Jonathan Haidt writes in The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, smartphones are the central reason why we see a steep increase of sleep deprived U.S. teens. Meanwhile, Jean Twenge and two other researches evaluated a large U.K. data, discovering that heavy use of screen media was associated with shorter sleep duration, longer sleep latency, and more mid-sleep awakenings.
It isn’t just sleep, school, and social skills. A team of scientists in England analyzed a data set of 84,000 individuals and found that social-media use negatively affected life satisfaction and mental health for girls and boys going through puberty. A team from University of Pittsburgh found a correlation between time spent scrolling through social media apps and a greater risk of young adults developing eating and body image concerns. Analyzing data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Monitoring the Future survey, Twenge shows that teens who spend more time using social media are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and other disorders. As Haidt writes, “Life on social media forces young girls especially to become their own brand managers, always thinking ahead about the social consequences of each photo, video, comment, and emoji they choose. Every public action is, to some degree, strategic. Even for kids who never post anything, spending time on social media sites can be harmful because of the chronic social comparison.”
A doctor once told me: We control 0% of our feelings, 50% of our thoughts, and 100% of our actions. You will be making choices over the next few years that will set you up for success and happiness. There is a reason why you won’t be able to drive a car until you turn 16. Like a car, social media can be a powerful tool. But let your brain develop first. Thank your parents for giving you the gift of a school and a life (for now) without a smart phone.